Recently I read Mark Batterson’s Praying Circles around the Lives of Your Children. In the book,
Batterson shares some personal stories of praying for his family, specifically
each of his children. He shares some helpful suggestions of ways all parents,
regardless of life stage the children are in, can pray for their kids.

The 7 prayer tools he suggests are:

·
Praying the promises of God

·
Making prayer lists

·
Creating prayer mantras

·
Praying a hedge of protection

·
Forming prayer circles

·
Praying through the bible

·
Passing on blessings

Batterson believes prayers function as prophesies. Praying
parents have the opportunity and privilege of scripting the future of their
children with their prayers. I find this absolutely incredible. And weighty.
And exciting. And daunting. And even more exciting.

I took away a few learning’s from the book that I’ve quickly
adapted into my daily routine. For starters, Justice wakes every morning with a
song of thanksgiving for the day that the Lord has made and we clap and say “yay”
and rejoice in it together.

Who gets to define what it means to be a man? Pop culture?
Church culture? Jesus? Evangelical thinker and author Carolyn Custis James has
spent the last two years examining these questions, and she’s now calling
Christians to the urgent task of recapturing God’s vision for men. The title of
her new book, Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Current of a Changing World (Zondervan,
June 2015), alludes to the dangers of whirlpools in the open seas, maelstroms.
She chose this powerful title to help readers grasp the destructive and
disorienting forces that took root as humans turned away from God’s original
vision for men.

Being a blogger and writer on the Internet, there are many
amazing people from all over the world who I “know” and have occasional online
exchanges with. On rare occasions I get to meet them in person at things like
the Q Conference, and it’s a delight for which I am very grateful.

But more and more I see that the relationships that matter
most are the ones right in front of me: My wife, church, neighbors, co-workers,
the members of the life group I lead, the college students I teach or mentor.
These are the people who inhabit my incarnational reality, who show up in my
daily and weekly rhythms, who know me in an integrated way. These are the
people I grow with. If any of the ideas I gleaned from Q are to develop into
good-advancing action, it will be in collaboration with these people.

Justice is
16 months old now. His personality is beginning to reveal itself and I'm
starting to see glimpses of the man God created him to be. He's observant and
pays close attention to detail, noticing nuts and bolts, light bulbs and wall
clocks. He's relational and playful with our friends’ kids. His greatest joy is to
pick up handfuls of dirt which he then meticulously transfers to a nearby location
only to drop the dirt, watching its granules slip slowly between his pudgy baby
fingers. He's full of life and joy and I absolutely love being his momma.

He's also full of opinions and never hesitates to tell my how he really feels. Like, when he kicks his legs at turbo speed in protest to
being carried indoors after so many outside adventures.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:30-31

I haven’t slept in over a year. Some days I am tempted to tape my
eyelids open. It’s my son Justice. He’s just not a sleeper. If you’re a
mom you know just how many sleep “experts” there are out there and
varying opinions of how to help your baby sleep through the live long
night. Have you read author Ava Neyer’s take on sleep training? It’s hilarious because it’s true – no matter what the so-called experts say, some babies just don’t sleep. End of story.

How
clearly the sky reveals God's glory!
How
plainly it shows what he has done!–Psalm 19:1

It’s not uncommon for my son Justice, to wake up from his
nightly slumber, clapping his hands and grinning at the start of a new day.
From his crib, his baby browns scan his room, his whole face smiles as he
glances from his toys to his pictures and room décor.

Throughout each day, he’s likely to dance with gusto to his favorite Motown hits playing in our home. While running around
outside, he waves to helicopters flying overhead and behaves as a mocking bird
when the crows perch themselves in the tree above, caw-cawing along with them.
He flails his arms with excitement at the sight of food he so enjoys to eat. And he
gets the giggles when it rains.

Recently I said to a friend, “It’s in the simple,
everyday things Justice finds his greatest joy.”

And then it struck me like an Easter bonnet on a church
lady.

Simple.

Are the birds, rain, the sun and moon, all creation, not to mention huge, heavy, metal objects that defy gravity and fly through the sky,
simple? Or could it be I have lost the awe in such wonderful things?

I’ve come to realize it’s officially a sad day the moment I
consider it simple the moon perfectly hanging in space or water falling from
the sky in all shapes and forms.

Job also lost awe in the day-to-day acts of God. Granted,
Job was in a much different situation than in my life, however, Gods response to Job is
a response to us all.

Read what God once upon a time told Job:

“Where were
you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." Psalm 37: 3-6

I used to read this passage and only have eyes for, "the Lord will give you the desires of your heart." How wonderful I thought. God wants to give me the desires of my heart! I seemed to subconsciously ignore the part about delighting in the Lord and trusting him. Details...details.

Of all of the things that come with being with a mom – the mommy brain, sleepless nights, cuddles and snuggles, drool, poop and oh so much more – one of my absolute favorites is when my 13 month old Justice, crawls up into my lap, tucks his arms in against his one-pack-Buddha-belly and falls asleep resting on me.

Justice has a sleepy song he sings to himself just before he fads into slumber. Well, calling it a song is a bit of stretch; he sounds more like a creaking door, in need of a serious douse of WD-40. He creaks and creaks until at last he relaxes and settles in for a good nap on his momma.

And I love it! I often wonder what he’s thinking as he sings his creaky song and zero’s in on sleep.

If you’ve been in Christian circles long enough, you may be familiar with those who admit guilt over falling asleep while praying, especially at night. Maybe you’ve experienced this. This is bad theology.

I have been doing research on what makes a good speech,
mainly because I have been asked to speak at a Biola University Chapel. I enjoy
speaking, but usually I’m in front of a class or a Bible study or a group of
little kids, where excessive hand motions and a few jokes sprinkled throughout
are enough to hold interest.

Speaking in front of a group of several hundred college
students, whose attention span is usually limited to 140 characters, will
require more than those limited skills. I will need to develop a different
strategy. So I’ve been studying how to give a talk like they do at those TED
conferences.

If you don’t know TED, you should. TED is an organization
that showcases experts in various fields (Technology, Entertainment,
Design—TED) talking on fascinating topics successful people find interesting.
TED hosts live conferences throughout the country, but most people access the
talks for free through TED.com. More than a million people a day watch TED
Talks online.

After an hour or so, I found the site. I then knelt down and took a photograph, so that I could send the photo to the family friend (for which they were grateful). But, as I was kneeling in front of this site, I paused to look and up and suddenly noticed that I was kneeling amidst a sea of white crosses, all with someone's name on them, and all a reminder that sometimes loved ones sacrifice their life for kin and for country.

You may not think of visiting a cemetery, if you happen to be in England, but every single name is connected to another name that is not known and not written on the gravesite. In other words, someone lost and someone loved and often it's a both/and. When we love, we will get hurt. Why? Because real love gets dirty and messy and under one's skin. And that visit to the cemetery remains a vivid memory because part of it got to me.